Knowledge Makes A Great Gift!

Because the holiday season brings family members of all ages together, it’s a great opportunity for people to share knowledge.

Adults often don’t realize how important it is for kids to learn factual information, but information is the fuel the brain runs on! Young minds can’t develop properly unless they’ve got plenty of facts to chew on.

Don’t worry about confusing your child with complex issues; kids need to hear about current events, science, economics and history, even if they don’t fully grasp the details. Confusion stimulates the mind to think hard and be curious, and we do kids a disservice when we water information down or shield them from material we believe will be too hard for them.

Our whole family loves the games on Sporcle.com, and we’ve now got several of our students hooked on some of our favorites. Try playing these together when family members are hanging out:

Play an audio book in the car (kids may complain at first, but they rapidly get used to listening…and it’s perfectly OK to “zone out” while listening; the point is not to capture every word but to stimulate the brain and feed in some facts, ideas and vocabulary.)

Leigh Pretnar Cousins, MS

Leigh Pretnar Cousins, MS is an educator, counselor, writer and speaker. She's been a tutor, test prep coach and home school teacher for over thirty years. Click HERE to visit Leigh's website and to subscribe to her newsletter, "Learning Something New."

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